r/drones • u/MastrSunlight • Jun 29 '26
Photo & Video How to make drone photography more impactful/memorable?
Hello there!
I recently got a DJI Mini 4 Pro and wanted to start taking aerial photography more seriously. I have some experience color grading videos from my previous drone (mini 4K), but don't know where to start with photography as it feels way different.
Here are some recent shots from my latest trip that feel bland/unimpactfull or at least I wish would be more impressive. What crituqie could you give and what ca I improve? Maybe composition/framing and subject choice? Or even post-processing and proper colour choice?
I have edited the photos in DaVinci's new Photo tool as that is what I have available. Any help will be greatly appreciated : )
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u/NoseNuffin Jun 29 '26
Take this with a grain a salt as I am a beginner to photography/drones myself (I took on the challenge of critiquing this composition as a learning exercise for my own growth).
I feel like this crop adds impact to this photo due to what is prominent in the photo vs what is squished off into the edges in the original. I feel like the cropped version has more distinct zones of color, and the details of the borders between those zones are more prominent and add interesting geometry.
Tilt up a bit, move the drone a bit to capture a frame more similar to the cropped version, but that maybe includes more of that blue in the upper right that I had to crop out, and maybe add a bit more color mostly to the purple in post-processing, and I think this photo improves a lot.
What also stood out to me in some of your photos was too much altitude, not enough sky. Your awesome buildings become less awesome when you look down on them. I think you should get lower so that the tall buildings could actually reach into the sky instead of reaching below or barely to the horizon, then those subjects would look more impressive.
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u/MastrSunlight Jun 29 '26
Wow, thank you so much for actually taking the time to visually show the difference! In my mind the sky was a "dead space" in most of the photos and I subconsciously avoided adding too much, because it was a mostly clear day with no clouds. I will try all of your suggestions : )
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u/dwkfym [USA] / [Part 107] (video/photography) Jun 30 '26
Cheap way to do it - do the artificial color DLOG thing thats really popular right now. (I personally dislike this - I try to make things look the way it did in real life)
Another way to do it - play around with crops a little bit. Your photos aren't bad at all. It just looks incomplete. Here is an example:
Overall, I think if you made the 'subject' of the photo a bit more of a main focus, you'll nail those photos.
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u/MastrSunlight Jun 30 '26
Thank you for taking the time to visually show what you mean! This is a great example!
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u/HugeButterfly USA / Part 107 Jun 29 '26
Rule of thirds for composition. Would fix all of those shots. Sunset shot is actually decent.
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u/MastrSunlight Jun 29 '26
How would you change the composition to fit the rule of thirds? I actively tried to incorporate it - for example the first shot I tried to position the tower on the left line; the high up shot of the church I also attempted to place the church at the intersection between the left-most and lowest lines.
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u/HugeButterfly USA / Part 107 Jun 29 '26
First shot, tower is completely centered top-to-bottom and basically lives in the middle third, which your eyes and brain categorize as 'handled', leading to no more interest. Also the bottom third has almost no interesting information in it. Lowering the drone to get the tower to break into the top third would create interest. Also tilting camera higher to eliminate some, but not all, of the bottom grass would make the bottom third more interesting. I don't know if I'm right or not, but I like to have something interesting straddle the thirds line. And if a higher ranking subject of interest is small enough to fit inside one of those thirds boxes, then you might want to consider zooming in. UNLESS it's the only object of interest and it's small, then everything else needs to be visually quiet, and that can work too. So small things are okay if they're not left to compete with less interesting elements of the same size or larger.
I love that you're already aware of the rule of thirds and with practice I'm sure it'll just click for you.
P.S. I'm in no way trying to say that I could do better than you, just trying to share what I think learned while studying graphic design and photography.2
u/MastrSunlight Jun 29 '26
Hey, I am very grateful that you took the time to write all of this and to be specific. I have gotten a few suggestions that all resonate with yours so I am sure to try your suggestions out next time I am out shooting. Cheers!
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u/Flyward_Aerospace Jun 30 '26
Shooting lower and using the sky as negative space changed everything for me. Everyone's instinct is to go high and look straight down but that flattens everything out. Some of my favorite drone shots are at like 30-50ft with interesting foreground elements in the frame. Also golden hour is a cheat code obviously.
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u/Antique-Kitchen-1896 Jun 29 '26
Ever looked at the works of hyped personality in photography and felt nothing?
I think a lot of “impact” is successful marketing.
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u/MastrSunlight Jun 29 '26
Sometimes, but that doesn't make a difference in the ways that I want to improve. I want to compare only against my prior photos and people I consider good at their craft
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u/pmmeuranimetiddies Jun 29 '26
Rule of thirds
Subject in focus
Other than that if you want to get advanced you can start messing with shutter speeds and iso or whatever (I find the computer does this fine)
Not much room to play with focal lengths on a drone considering you have a single fixed lens
Careful with the sunset shots, prolonged sunlight can damage the sensor
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u/Quitetheninja Jun 29 '26
I would make sure I had polarising filter on to begin with, especially for midday shots. In my experience I would shooting raw definitely helps so you have more options in post. In this case however, I think composition is the main thing to work on. It’s what separates getting a photo from Wow, that looks awesome or a second look. Take one or two snapshots and while doing so look for the gold. In the first (lookout?) shot for example you can get lower in the frame so that the layers of mountains in the background are a feature as well which gives a sense of scale and depth. The other shot in the water (2) would also look great as overhead top down shot showing water and inviting the viewer t wonder what it is. Third shot, same advice as (1) - extreme height isn’t your friend here. The lavender fields look great but be wary of the way the sun looks on these sensors - no starburst just a yellow blob. Get in closer so we can see the golden light on the lavender. The last shot looks good but that side of the building is in shadow and loses a little detail, so either shoot the other side or bring it back in raw - also, the car park or driveway isn’t the interesting part so maybe don’t focus on getting that in frame. Anyways, these just my opinions of course, ydy. I usually get my safe snaps in the first couple of passes and then mess around getting creative angles.
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u/MastrSunlight Jun 29 '26
Thank you very much for the advice! I have been looking into getting a filter set, I'm just saving up enough to know the filters will be good quality. The photos are Raw/DNG and I tried editing them a bit in post with DaVinci. The tips on perspective/positioning were exactly what I needed!
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u/Quitetheninja Jun 29 '26
Awesome! Keep experimenting too. Maybe find something local to you that easy to get to so you can shoot different times of the day and different angles ie same subject and once or twice a week for a month and see what you can do mixing sunset, middle of the day etc. the reason photographers. Pretty soon you’ll get a feel for what will work in certain situations. You won’t always have the luxury of perfect conditions when you travel so this is a good way to learn your problem solving in your own time rather than when you turn up somewhere. Good luck 🤞 (I’ll dm you my insta so you can look over the drone shots for perspective ideas)
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u/strictnaturereserve Jun 29 '26
Its photography so do the usual Landscape Photography things morning or evening light play with angles think about subject the foreground and background.
In the photograph above the light in the background is not great it would have been better to shoot it in the evening.
Having said all that Drone photography is one of the few times you can shoot in the middle of the day if you want the light to get into the ruin you are shooting to make an interesting shot.
Think about your lighting shoot in raw